Boxed Item Handling Frame for Fast Multi-Item Sorting
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing automated handling systems for boxed items are complex, expensive, and inefficient, particularly when handling multiple items, leading to slow loading and unloading operations, especially in environments with a large variety of items.
Innovation Solution
A unit and procedure that allows for the simultaneous handling of multiple boxed items by using a frame with gripping bars and hindering means to translate and position items on a handling surface, enabling efficient movement and alignment with a sorting surface for rapid delivery.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If automated handling systems are used for boxed items, then loading and unloading operations can be automated, but the systems become complex and expensive
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple handling functions (gripping, translating, positioning, and hindering) into a single integrated frame structure with gripping bars. This merging of functions reduces the number of separate components needed, thereby simplifying the overall system while maintaining full automation capability for loading and unloading boxed items.
Solution Approach 2:
The frame with gripping bars serves multiple functions simultaneously: it grips the boxed items, translates them along the predominant development direction, positions them on the handling surface, and works with the hindering means to control item movement. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate specialized components, lowering system complexity and cost while achieving full automation.
2Productivity
If handling units are designed to transport single objects at a time, then the unit design is simpler, but loading and unloading operations slow down
Solution Approach 1:
The frame is divided into multiple gripping bars that can independently engage with different boxed items simultaneously. Each gripping bar can translate and position items independently, allowing the system to handle multiple items in parallel. This segmentation enables high-speed handling of multiple items without requiring a single complex multi-grasper mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The system handles multiple boxed items by utilizing the dimensional space along the predominant development direction of the storage surface. By arranging gripping bars along this direction and translating items simultaneously in parallel, the system achieves high throughput without increasing vertical complexity, effectively using horizontal dimensional expansion to improve productivity.
3Area of stationary object
If shelving units are densely stacked with multiple rows of boxed items, then storage space is optimized, but access and handling become more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The frame with gripping bars acts as an intermediary mechanism that accesses boxed items from densely stacked shelving units. The gripping bars can reach into narrow spaces between densely packed items, translate them along the predominant development direction, and deposit them on the handling surface without requiring manual intervention or wide operator movement space, thus maintaining ease of operation despite dense stacking.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces manual operator manipulation with an automated mechanical system consisting of the frame and gripping bars. This mechanical substitution enables the system to access and handle items in densely stacked configurations that would be difficult or impossible for human operators to reach, while maintaining ease of operation through automation. The mechanical system translates items systematically without requiring physical clearance for human movement.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
An automated handling procedure for boxed items (3) is provided, which includes arranging on a storage surface (2) boxed items (3) aligned in rows (6) along their respective predominant development direction (6a) in dimensionally decreasing order, for each row (6), towards a first edge (20) of the storage surface (2); unitarily translating along the predominant development direction (6a) on a handling surface (40) of a frame (4) facing the first edge (20) a group of said boxed items (3) consisting of at least a portion of a row (6); moving the frame (4) close to a sorting surface (8) so that the handling surface (40) is aligned with the sorting surface (8); taking at least one end boxed item (3) of the group from the handling surface (40) to the sorting surface (8); returning the handling surface (40) close to the storage surface (2); repositioning any elements of the group on the storage surface (2) at a row (6), and sending at least one boxed item (3) to delivery on the sorting surface (8); wherein during the translation, an entire row (6) is translated along said predominant development direction (6a) so that the residual row (6) on the storage surface (2) is adjacent to the first edge (20).